PARIS—The number of countries ready to take military action in Syria has reached "double digits," U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Saturday after European Union foreign ministers agreed there was strong evidence the regime of Bashar al-Assad was behind the alleged use of chemical weapons against rebels.

Mr. Kerry was speaking at a joint press conference with French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius that sought to address deep skepticism among lawmakers and the public in both countries. Washington and Paris are pushing to assemble a broad international coalition of countries that support possible strikes on the Assad regime in order to persuade Congress to vote in favor of authorizing military action.

What's the short version of Syria's recent history? WSJ's Jason Bellini has #TheShortAnswer.

WSJ's Patrick O'Connor says any boost Obama's Syria plans received from GOP leaders' backing quickly faded due to deep doubts among rank-and-file lawmakers. Obama still has convincing to do.

"There are a number of countries in the double digits, who are prepared to take military action,'' said Mr. Kerry, without naming the countries. France and Denmark are among the EU governments who say they could join U.S. led strikes.

Earlier Saturday, Mr. Kerry met with EU foreign ministers who issued a statement describing evidence that the Assad regime used chemical weapons as "strong" and urging a "clear and strong" response. The Assad regime has repeatedly denied using chemical weapons.

However, the ministers stopped short of calling for military action and expressed hope that United Nations inspectors sent to investigate last month's attack would be allowed to present their report before any action was taken.

Mr. Kerry said he planned to discuss whether to wait for the U.N. findings with U.S. President
Barack Obama
,
adding that Mr. Obama had not decided on the matter.

Washington and Paris are both under pressure to garner public support for military intervention in the Syrian conflict. Mr. Obama faces a tough vote in Congress seeking authorization to strike the regime. French President François Hollande can act without parliamentary approval, but he has said Paris will not strike the Assad regime without Washington.

Messrs. Kerry and Fabius insisted international diplomatic support was building for possible strikes, citing the EU agreement as well as a similar statement issued Friday by 11 countries on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit in St. Petersburg, Russia.

"The overwhelming support is moving in the direction of holding the Assad regime to account," Mr. Kerry said.

A senior French official said the pledges of international support provide Paris and Washington crucial diplomatic cover to carry out strikes without a resolution from the U.N. Security Council. Both countries consider a resolution out of reach, because Russia is wielding its veto power on the Security Council to block military intervention in Syria.

"Roughly speaking, if the Security Council is blocked and we carry out strikes, we know that the countries that signed will politically support that response," the official said.

On Saturday Mr. Kerry repeatedly drew parallels between the world's struggle to respond to the Assad regime and European appeasement of Nazi Germany during the Munich conference that took place at the outset of World War II.

"This is our Munich moment. This is our chance to join together and pursue accountability over appeasement," Mr. Kerry said. At several points in the news conference, he spoke in French to drive home his arguments with the French public, which mainly opposes military intervention in Syria.

The EU statement was the bloc's strongest since the alleged chemical attack occurred on Aug. 21. Still, there was no explicit support for the idea of military strikes in the EU's statement, which called for a resumption of peace talks in Geneva.

"We were unanimous in condemning in the strongest terms this horrific attack. Information from a wide variety of sources confirms the existence of such an attack an d seems to indicate strong evidence that the Syrian regime is responsible for this attack," read the statement from the EU foreign ministers.

"In the face of this cynical use of chemical weapons, the international community cannot remain idle. A clear and strong response is crucial to make clear that such crimes are unacceptable and that there will be no impunity."

After Saturday's meeting, Germany's foreign minister confirmed that his government would sign the statement that came out of this week's Group of 20 leaders meeting calling for a "strong international response" to the attack. Germany had initially withheld its signature when the statement was signed in St. Petersburg on Friday.

"After we saw this excellent and very wise position of the European Union the chancellor and myself, we decided of course that we support now the G20 statement," German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said after the meeting.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said it was "very important" that Germany now backed the St. Petersburg statement, allowing the EU to stand united on Syria.

Until Saturday, the EU had struggled for a common stance on Syria, with some backing a military response to the chemical-weapons attack and others warning such action could make a political solution to the crisis impossible.

"The question we must ask ourselves is what should we do in Syria which is in the interests of the Syrian people," said Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn on Friday. "Is this truly in the interest of the Syrian people to want to carry out military strikes to punish Bashar al-Assad. I think not."

Probably the single greatest reason why most of the opinions written here mean absolutely nothing is because these are the same idiots who supported our invasion of Iraq and then proceeded to elect Bush to a second term even when it became clear that we went there under false pretenses. After nearly 5000 lives lost and 3 Trillion dollars poorer we finally left. No outrage from the right wingers for all our losses.

Now Obama wants to lob a few bombs in Syria's direction and the mad-dogs of the GOP are predicting the beginning of the Apocalypse. How laughably hypocritical! Our Congress is a direct reflection of the sentiments posted here which is to play partisan politics on every issue, every time. And people grouse about why nothing gets accomplished in Washington. Well, look in the mirror.

Has anybody given any consideration to that maybe just maybe the Egyptian thing, the overthrow of radical Islamist Morsi and only silence offered up by the US government in response to the coupe and the Syrian action which ultimately has pretty much nothing to do with those civilians being killed but a larger grander plan to have the Egyptian Army stand down, get paid by not having the Americans cut off their aid while they crush Islamic radicalism and for the US and France etc to launch the air strike against Syrian command and control, air defense, chemical weapons and other retaliatory capabilities to dumb down, neuter and neutralize their ability to launch a retalitory strike against ISRAEL as anybody with a brain knows will attack Iran in short order because of Irans refusal to work with the world community on its nuclear plans. Does anybody see the grand strategy of basically taking two potential enemies of Israel out of the ball game for the last plays of the 4th quarter. That is the end game folks, no three front war, just one IRAN, which Israel will take out, hopefully with an EMP to crush the Islamist regime there bring them to their knees and then pour money into the country at some point after civil war to rebuild a more democratic country as opposed to the terror based government which has existed there for decades

This Administration is busily cutting off the limb they're sitting on all the while loudly exclaiming how hard and fast they're sawing. It COULD be a new world's record of how far and how fast they'll all fall.

Is this our "Munich moment" or our "Sarajevo moment?" Kerry hypes things up a notch every time he speaks. Next we will have a day that will live in infamy. All because Obama had his "macho moment" and drew a red line in the sand. Neither Kerry nor Obama have explained the basic requirements of what we hope to accomplish, and how we will accomplish it. And I doubt they have prepared for the contingency of the fall of Assad and the emergence of Al-Qaeda as the dominant force, with access to chemical weapons. That could be our "Dr. Strangelove moment."

I think I heard Putin laughing hysterically when Kerry spit those words out. This administration has made the US an utter joke. Laughingstock of the world. Thanks Barry - and all you idiots that voted him in not once, but twice.

Why does the press insists on presenting propaganda as news? It is infuriating!“ - - reached double digits - - “ = “ - - we finally have 10 - - ”. Name them!If it is such a noble position to take, surely they wouldn’t mind.

“ – support possible strikes on Assad regime - - “ or a possible third round draft pick. Look. Do they support military action or not, weasel-word?

“ - - prepared to take military action - - “ What does THAT mean? They have guns and bullets? If there is support for military intervention, why aren’t leaders of those countries making their OWN declarations?

Joseph Goebbels may have been impressed. Anyone with two grey cells to rub together is disgusted! How about trying TRUTH? There is overwhelming opposition to military intervention at home and abroad, despite the muslim marxist’s best efforts to whip-up a war.

WSJ - - try a little truth. If you want to support insanity, do it on the editorial page.

Given the backroom deals, the willingness to bypass Congress and the horsetrading that brought us Obamacare, can anyone or anything in this government be trusted? Reportedly, the plan has been changed 50+ times. Does anyone have a clue what the objective or endgame is? This is not Chicago politics. This is serious stuff.

Update: Central Office has confirmed that 99% of the world's citizens now support The Party's decision to invade Syria knowing that victory is at hand.

In other news, the U.S. economy is experiencing historical growth and full employment, with all other measures of its vitality soaring above previous expectations. Production of military and consumer items increased 500% in the last 4 years. Scientists have reached consensus that the Earth's temperature is now precisely at the optimum level due to the changes made by The Party.

The interesting thing about the G20 is that they all agree that the use of chemical weapons is unacceptable. Very intuitive on their part. However, you don't see the magic double digit countries make any announcements that they will be part of a coalition to declare war on Syria, or pony up dollars or people. Ah yes, they will let you fly over their country to bomb Syria, they will let you use their bases to launch missions, but none will get into the mix of war.

They know as most Americans do that this is a fools war. Less than one half of one percent of the poor civilian have died of chemical warfare. We don't even know conclusively whether the Syrian government or one or more of the so called rebel groups did it. We may never know. As for the United Nations, they have yet to announce their findings. I would not be surprised if their report is inconclusive relative to who did the dastardly deed.

As for John Kerry, putting aside his atrocious Vietnam war antics, his performance along with Chuck Hagal at both the Senate and house committee hearings was disgraceful. They attempted to sell an aggressive act of war as though it were a one night stand, with no thought of what comes next. For that matter, John McCain is no better. His idea is to go in and change the leadership of Syria without considering who will follow. We have seen this show wherever the Arab Spring has flourished. By the way, General Dempsey was the only one who was candid and honest.

As for Geppettos son Pinocchio (President Obama), he has again used this situation as a way to take the American publics eye off the ball, including all those debacles which continue to plague his administration. His handoff to congress was masterful. Regardless of what anyone thinks of him, he is the slickest of all politicians that have preceded him.

With regard to the U.S. Congress, it will be interesting to see how they will ultimately vote. If they are smart (which is questionable) in many cases, they will reject taking any action against Syria. If they do vote to take action, and the United Stated does so, you can expect your junior high and high school children will soon be touring the Middle East. I sincerely hope I am wrong.

This is Obama's war not the American people war. It's a war of Putin against Obama to determine who is the strongest man in the world. Sadly, Putin seems to have won this war: Obama is no longer perceived to be the head of the strongest nation on earth.

One must wonder what political horse-trading went on to gather the support of all these countries. Most of the world have no stake in the chemical weapons debate unless they are directly threatened. This is an internal Syrian matter which does not affect our national security or interests. When Saddam Hussein gassed the Kurds and killed them by the tens of thousands, not s single country took issue with it at the time. Saddam was never a threat to our national security no matter how much the Bush administration tried to lie about it. Our intervention in Iraq changed nothing to help our standing w/ that country. The same will be true for Syria.

Gee, he has 10 countries who say they will back US aggression... Will they bring bucks, missiles, aircraft, troops on the ground Mr. Kerry? I didn't think so. You just found ten idiots that believe your lies.

I remember when Madeliene Albright told us that the Serbs had killed "tens of thousands and buried them in mass graves.". That was justification for going into Kosovo. After the war less than 2,500 bodies were found in mass graves and some of those buried in them were caused by our Tomahawk missiles and bombs.

We went into Vietnam based on lies about Tonkin Gulf incident. Remember why we went into Iraq, yeah, they had WMDs. Lies, lies and more lies.

Would a declaration of war by Congress against Syria open up War Powers Acts and put a halt to court challenges to the government spying on citizens? Following this proposed attack with threats of terrorist acts against U.S. interests will the government then ramp up the massive spying campaign against citizens under some type of war powers act generated by congress ordering attack on Syria? Certainly government will be in a place to ask courts to halt citizen spying as violations of constitution. How deep and what triggers more war powers to government?

Hmmmm .... I wonder if WSJ readers are aware that Conservative Republican hero Ronald Reagan helped Saddam Hussein get his hands on chemical weapons back in the 1980s.

This was probably Donald Rumsfeld and his buddies who thought this was a good idea to give super deadly chemical/biological weapons to Saddam. Saddam ended up using the chemical weapons he got via the Reagan administration to gas thousands of his own people. Whoops. Crazy world isn't it?

This is yet another reason for America to be VERY mistrustful about the shady things politicians do in Washington.

"O’Donnell cited a 2002 Washington Post article by Michael Dodd that found “the administrations of Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush authorized the sale to Iraq of numerous items that had both military and civilian applications, including POISONOUS CHEMICALS and DEADLY BIOLOGICAL VIRUSES, such as ANTHRAX and BUBONIC PLAGUE.”

Check out this article that I googled a few minutes ago ...

"Britain sent poison gas chemicals to Assad: Proof that the UK delivered Sarin agent to Syrian regime for SIX years"

This reader thinks its time Israel carries out its own wet work rather than pulling the strings of its US puppet. The attack on Syria will be just the prelude to the war that the Zionists have been demanding for a decade against Iran, Hezbollah and anyone else in the region who defies the Jewish occupation of Palestine and Israeli hegemony in the Middle East. The Syrian people have committed no act of aggression against the US or its citizens and apart from the foreign mercenaries recruited by the US and its friends to launch the insurrection against the socialist Syrian government, no Syrians are calling for American attacks on their country. Zionism has subverted the American democracy, American civil liberties and American morality. Until the Zionist state and its American sympathizers took control of Washington DC America didn't read its citizens e-mail, listen to their phone conversations or check their library withdrawals. Neither did America routinely torture detainees or operate an Israeli style prison like Guantanamo. Neither did America criminalize thought. Finally before Zionism demanded the establishment and use of a huge American military and naval establishment to pursue and harry the enemies of the Zionist state, we were not bankrupt.

Getting MORE involved in Syria is wrong. I do not believe it is the best way to prove our resolve. Money talks -- cut Syria and the "rebels" off Cold Turkey right now. Then listen to the World squeal. If the truth be known we are most likely "buying" all this "agreement" anyway.

BREAKING NEWS...The coalition of the willing "reaches double digits...without naming countries"... So, they are all on board, these allies...but not like on the ships manifest...more like anonymous stow-aways.This doesn't exactly instill confidence now does it? Hardly a John Hancock moment.

Wow this seems familiar, just like the "coalition" that was with us when we attacked Iraq. When the U.S. attacked Iraq we were supported by a coalition of 5 military camels from Chad, 2 stealth donkeys from Myanmar, and 12 special forces bushmen from Papua New Guinea. Go ahead Obama attack Syria and thumb you nose at the world's major countries, ignore the United Nations, AND this time ignore the will of the majority Americans people as well. At least Bush had the support of a large number of the American people when he attacked Iraq, Obama doesn't even have that!!

It is so pathetic to see Kerry groveling at the feet of social democratic leaders in Europe who have since World War II avoided military conflict at every turn. There is no "overwhelming" support whatsoever, but rather the evasive words of feigned outrage at what has happened in Syria. There is surely no commitment to foot the bill - as we have to this day not received a dime from the coalition that dragged the U.S. into an imprudent foray into Lybia. What that got us was Benghazi! We still do not know who actually used the nerve/chemical gas. We again have the selective leaking of video clips by an Administration that immorally uses classified information for its petty political advantage. The Congress must stand its ground and vote down this latest foolish attempt, not to help the Syrian people or to uphold the weakened strands of international treaties/conventions against chemical weapons, but rather to provide cover for a foolish and arrogant comment made by a President unprepared for the role of Commander-in-Chief. The Great Imposter's incompetence has had the bright light of day shine on it with woeful results.

Fun to watch, isn't it James. I remember how those celebrity idiots rushed to the microphones to justify why Barack Obama truly deserved his Nobel Peace Prize. It seems like the cat's got their tongue now.

I can't wait to hear deep thinkers like Kim and Kanye's take on the situation. We need dysfunctional Hollywood types weighing in as much as the Titanic needed another iceberg.

Yea, where are the Hollywood Bush anti-war pukes like Alec Baldwin, Sean Penn, Tim Robbins, Susan Sarandon, Matt Damon, Jeannie Garafalo, etc,... Give us a shout out on a tweet that you are against more US violence. You phony liberal Hypocrites.

This is no where near the size of the coalition that went into Iraq..yeah, the one that was ridiculed by the same press that today is classifying Obama supporters in congress as a sufficient coalition to go forward.

Martin. Imagine you are Assad..or Iran for that matter...this has become a win/win opportunity not just to advance your cause and crush your enemies, but to isolate and turn world opinion against a superpower. Obama's attack will be blamed for any military response Assad orders in response..and Obama's lack of action will make Assad stronger without having to fire a bullet. This is what happens when you put a college professor in charge of really big stuff.....like healthcare...and war....and the economy...and....

I see on the news this morning that Feinstein is pushing her new DVD capturing the most grotesque images of gassing deaths they could find. I wonder if it will have background music or narration... I guess this is to soften the resolve of the American people in preparation for Obama's big speech (yes, another big speech) coming on Tuesday. I see Axelrod fingerprints all over this..opposition research and all...just took out Romney's face and put in Assad's. They truly only know one thing...campaigning.

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